The Holy See announced today that there are currently no new cases of people infected with the new coronavirus in the Vatican, on the same day that Pope Francis considered that Italy “has overcome the pandemic”.
“The last person declared sick with covid-19 in the past few weeks was negative in the tests,” announced the director of press services, Matteo Bruni, in a statement sent on Saturday night.
The document assumes that, “so far, there are no more cases of a new coronavirus among employees of the Holy See”, or in the Vatican, where 12 infected people “duly isolated in confinement” were identified at the time of detection.
St. Peter’s Square was banned for almost three months because of the pandemic, and today Pope Francis in the traditional ‘Angelus’ prayer was thrilled to see hundreds of people scattered throughout the space, fulfilling the social distance, but kept the appeal to prudence.
“Your presence in this square is a sign that the acute phase of the pandemic has been overcome in Italy, but be cautious, do not declare victory too early”, warned the Pope who considered “necessary to follow the [sanitary] measures in force” in a way to prevent the virus from returning.
“Thank God we are gradually getting out of the covid-19 pandemic,” he said.
Born in Argentina, Francisco did not hide his discouragement because, “unfortunately, in other countries, particularly in Latin America, the virus continues to cause countless victims” and recalled that, every two days, within 24 hours, every minute was registered a death of an infected person.
The Pope presented his “solidarity with these peoples, the sick and their families and all those who care and work” in combating the pandemic.
The head of the church also appealed to citizens of other countries who are still in confinement to comply with the rules determined by the authorities.
According to the official Italian civil protection report, the pandemic killed 33,846 people in four months and is now controlled with 72 deaths and 270 infections in the past 24 hours.
Italy started a gradual deflation a month ago.
The covid-19 pandemic has already claimed more than 397,000 deaths and infected more than 6.8 million people in 196 countries and territories, according to the balance made by the French agency AFP.
In Portugal, 1,474 people out of 34,351 confirmed to have died, and 20,807 cases recovered, according to the latest bulletin from the Directorate-General for Health, released on Saturday.
The disease is transmitted by a new coronavirus detected in late December in Wuhan, a city in central China.
